reassign 4580 apache quit I conjecture that this bug is due to apache giving the --pidfile option to start-stop-daemon. I don't know whether this is appropriate for apache, but I think start-stop-daemon is behaving as documented in this example, so if it's a bug it's in apache. So, to the apache maintainer: please check to see if this is a problem, and close the bug if appropriate. Thanks, Ian.